My rule of thumb for experiencing market scenes is to get out of bed ridiculously early and arrive on location as soon as you possibly can.
First things first: breakfast! We had skipped our morning meal at the hotel to save some time. A great move, as it turned out; not only were there no other tourists at the market yet, but we also got to taste the local breakfast, which consists mainly of “interesting” animal parts \u00e2\u20ac\u201d Oh dear, what did I sign up for?<\/p>\n
![\"breakfast](\"https:\/\/travelcake.site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/BREAKFAST2.jpg\")
<\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a>To me, this was the highlight of the animal market: getting in early, being hit by the savoury aromatics surrounding the stalls, eating with indigenous merchants replenishing themselves after a long trip to town… It doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t get more authentic than that. Though there wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t much else for us to do than snap a few photographs and get stomped by scuffling pigs, I loved walking through the market, getting an idea of how Andean people do business, and finding out the running prices for livestock. As soon as the novelty of the indigenous animal market wore off, we wandered toward the main market. By lunchtime, we were done with markets and relaxed in a hip caf\u00c3\u00a9 overlooking the main plaza \u00e2\u20ac\u201d to be fair, Douglas had already given up long before lunch and was sipping on his third health juice by the time I arrived.<\/p>\n That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a definite YES! Though you can find more authentic markets elsewhere in Ecuador, Otavalo didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t feel like a tourist trap and was an experience to remember. Heck, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve even included it in my list of 100 best travel experiences<\/a><\/strong> so far! The post “In search of authenticity at Otavalo Market, Ecuador<\/a>” first appeared on Travel Cake<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A visit to the indigenous market of Otavalo in Ecuador is probably one of the most advertised activities in Quito\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s guest houses and travel agencies. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s said to be one of the largest and oldest indigenous markets in South America, and every single guidebook will tell you it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a must-do if you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re visiting the Quito […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3306,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[74,100,75],"tags":[12,4,13,98],"country":[190],"class_list":["post-3204","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-culture-and-festivals","category-ecuador","category-latin-america","tag-experiences","tag-food","tag-markets","tag-south-america","country-ecuador"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.travelcake.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3204","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.travelcake.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.travelcake.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.travelcake.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.travelcake.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3204"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.travelcake.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3204\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4602,"href":"https:\/\/www.travelcake.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3204\/revisions\/4602"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.travelcake.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3306"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.travelcake.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3204"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.travelcake.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3204"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.travelcake.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3204"},{"taxonomy":"country","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.travelcake.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/country?post=3204"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
Once our stomachs were filled, we started mingling with the livestock.<\/p>\n<\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a>
Now before anyone starts judging, keep in mind that these animals might be jammed into small vehicles to get to Otavalo and kept in tiny cages during market time, but in their daily lives, most of them run freely over luscious fields and hills, getting plenty of fresh air and exercise \u00e2\u20ac\u201d probably more so than I get.<\/p>\n
And there they were \u00e2\u20ac\u201d I spotted them from a distance: the tacky tourist souvenirs.
At the same time, there were also some splendid crafts which any visitor would be lucky to take home. I hated that I only had a little space left to bring back Ecuadorian souvenirs!<\/p>\n<\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a>So did we find authenticity in the market of Otavalo?<\/strong><\/h4>\n
<\/a>
We found Otavalo to be an interesting crossroads between indigenous traditions and tourist-oriented comfort.
You could easily fill up your plate with local staples and, only minutes later, be savouring an ornate caf\u00c3\u00a9 latte.
The quality of the crafts is decent, and there are definitely good deals to be made.<\/p>\n
If you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re just passing through Ecuador and want to hit a market, Otavalo is a great option. Spend the night, wake up early, and you won\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t be disappointed.<\/p>\nMarkets, fun or boring? What do you think? Let me know in the comments!<\/strong><\/h4>\n